A Rainy Day
by 0tree1hugger
Summary: AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have just gotten out of two-week stint in the hospital, sorry to abandon the story without notice. I AM still writing, you can expect an update by the weekend, and I promise lots of action!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own anything associated with Gilmore Girls.

Rating: will become M

Summary: Literati, set during Season 2, right after 'There's the Rub.' Dean can see that Rory is pulling away from him, but he isn't willing to let her go so easily. Rating for language, violence, and adult situations.

Author's note: This is my first fanfic, so I would appreciate feedback! It starts the Monday after the events in 'There's the Rub.'

_**Bold italics are flashbacks**_

_Italics are thoughts_

X X X X X X X X X X X

Rory Gilmore stepped down from her bus and right into a mud puddle. Groaning, she waded onto the sidewalk as the bus pulled away, splashing her Chilton uniform with the puddles from the street.

"Augh!" she cried out as the freezing, dirty water drenched her skirt and blouse. The rain continued to pour down, soaking her long chestnut hair as she struggled to open her umbrella.

"Come on," she coaxed the stubborn lever that seemed to have rusted shut. Raindrops were hitting her face with increasing speed. Finally she gave up and began running down the street, attempting to shield herself from the weather with the still-closed umbrella and her goose bump-covered arms. Her over-stuffed backpack bounced painfully against her body as she ran.

The day had started out so warm that Rory hadn't bothered to bring a jacket. She wore only her Chilton blouse, skirt, tights, and saddle shoes. Hardly appropriate dress for the sudden downpour that was currently taking over her hometown.

A bolt of lightening cut through the sky as the crack of thunder filled her ears. Rory paused at the corner. Should she try to make it home? Or…

Rory darted towards Luke's diner, looking down as she ran in an attempt to keep the rain out of her eyes. She almost ran into the glass door but stumbled to a stop just in time, yanked it open, and slipped inside.

Panting from her run, Rory paused in the doorway and dripped dirty water over the tiled floor. She glanced around as she caught her breath and realized that she was the only person inside the restaurant.

"Umm, hello?" she called out hesitantly, taking a few steps into the diner.

"Luke?" a little louder as she reached the counter, setting down her umbrella and letting her backpack fall from her shoulder with a thud.

"Oh, geez, Rory!" Luke suddenly appeared from the back room. "Augh, look at you kid, you're soaked through." He frowned down at her, concerned.

"Oh, I'll be fine," Rory reassured him, as her teeth began to chatter. "Coffee, please?"

"Forget it!" Luke told her. "Nothing until you go put on some warm clothes." He stepped out from behind the counter and shooed her towards the stairs.

"Go on upstairs, you can borrow something of Jess'," he said, "And take a hot shower first."

"Oh, that's not necessary," Rory protested, shaking her head and shivering.

"Yeah right," Luke scoffed, "I can barely understand you with your teeth chattering like that. Lorelai'll kill me if you catch a cold, so please, just go upstairs, take a hot shower, and put on some dry clothes."

Rory hesitated at the bottom of the staircase.

"He's not up there," Luke told her, realizing why she was so reluctant.

After a pause, Rory nodded. "Okay," she agreed. "It would be nice to be warm."

She started up the staircase.

"And when you get back down, you can have some coffee," Luke called up after her.

Rory smiled and trotted quickly up the last of the stairs.

X X X

Stepping out of the shower, Rory wrapped herself in a soft blue towel and tiptoed over to the dresser, feeling shy in Luke's apartment by herself. She opened drawers, looking for something suitable, and finally found a pair of grey sweatpants and a long-sleeved Metallica t-shirt that must belong to Jess.

She quickly dried herself off and got dressed in the clothes, a little surprised at how comfortable they were. **_I didn't realize boys cared about having soft clothes_,** she thought to herself as she hung her uniform over the shower door to dry and headed back downstairs to the diner.

A mug of steaming coffee sat at the counter waiting, and Rory gratefully sat down and took a sip.

"I made you a cheeseburger and some chili fries," Luke said, appearing from the kitchen with the plate in his hand. He set it down in front of Rory.

"Figured you could use something warm in your stomach," he explained. "When you're done eating, I'll give you a ride home in the truck."

"Oh, you don't have to do that," Rory protested. "I wouldn't want you to leave the diner alone. I can walk home just fine."

She was interrupted by a loud crack of thunder as the whole diner lit up from the lightening outside.

"There's not much point getting you warm and dry just to have you walk home in this mess," Luke told her. "And it's not like I'd be abandoning any customers."

He gestured at the empty diner. "Everyone's locked up at home until this storm's over."

"Okay," Rory reluctantly agreed. "I guess that would be nice. Thanks, Luke."

Luke smiled. "Good. I'll be in the storage room doing inventory, so give a shout when you're ready to go."

He turned and went back to his work, and Rory got to work on her food.

X X X

The truck pulled to a stop in front of the Gilmore house and Rory hopped out, running towards the door in an attempt to dodge the rain. Luke backed up the truck and headed into town again, having declined Rory's awkward invitation to come in for awhile with the excuse that he didn't want to get soaked himself.

Rory had received only a light sprinkling during her dash to the house, and burst through the door quickly, slamming it shut behind her to keep out the cold rain.

"Mom!" she called out. "I'm home!"

She walked into the living room and hit the 'play' button on the answering machine, tossing her backpack on the sofa.

"Hey mini-me," Lorelai called as she came down the stairs, her hair damp from a shower.

Rory shushed her as a message began to play.

"Hey Rory, it's me," Dean's voice came from the machine, sounding flat and controlled. "Call me back when you get this. I need to talk to you about something."

Lorelai raised an eyebrow at her daughter. "That sounded pretty serious," she commented.

Rory sighed. "Yeah, he's still pretty upset over Jess being here on Friday."

Lorelai frowned. "Dean needs to understand that it was all just a misunderstanding. You had no idea that Jess would come over, I told him that the next morning."

"I know—wait a minute, what did you tell him?" Rory asked her mom, suddenly panicked.

"What? I just said that it was one of those freaky unfortunate things that happen, and that you had nothing to do with Jess being there."

"Oh, no!" Rory cried, "That explains why he was so weird on Saturday!"

Lorelai studied her daughter. "Umm, I think that you not wanting Jess around would make Dean happy," she said.

Rory began pacing. "It would've if on Friday when he freaked out, Paris hadn't lied and said that I invited Jess over because she was interested in him!"

"So when I talked to him the next morning, he realized that she was lying," Lorelai realized. "Oh, no!"

"Exactly!" Rory said. "What am I supposed to tell him now? Augh, I never should have let Paris lie for me, but he was just so mad…"

"Honey, maybe you should just tell him the truth," Lorelai suggested. "Dean's a great guy, he'll understand."

"He sure didn't understand it on Friday," Rory pointed out. "The only thing that made him stop yelling was Paris' lie."

She thought back to that night.

_Dean stormed into the kitchen "What the hell is going on?" he yelled at Rory._

"_Hi," Paris said awkwardly from her seat at the table._

"_Um, Dean, you remember Paris, right?" Rory asked, trying to get his mind off Jess._

"_Yeah, hi," he muttered, looking at the remains of what was obviously a large meal on the kitchen table. "So Jess just dropped this off, huh?" _

"_Oh, well," Rory said nervously, thinking fast._

_Dean glared at her. "Now I know you eat fast, but this is a _lot_ of food to put away that quickly, even on your best day."_

_Rory bit her lip. "Okay, so he didn't just drop it off, but—"_

"_You told me you were doing laundry tonight," Dean accused._

"_I was," Rory protested._

"_And now you're here with Jess," he said angrily._

"_And Paris!" Rory pointed out._

"Jess_, Rory!" Dean yelled._

"_Ah, well," Rory stuttered. "I swear, I didn't—"_

"_You didn't what?" Dean said. "You didn't know he was coming over?"_

"_I didn't," Rory agreed._

"_And you also didn't know he was gonna stay, right?" he said sarcastically._

"_It just happened," Rory tried to reassure him._

"_How does that just happen?" Dean cried._

_Rory panicked. "Well, he was…and the diner, the diner was…and I…"_

"_And you what? What? Say something!" Dean exploded._

**_I thought he was going to hit me. _**Rory stopped pacing as the realization hit her. She stood still in shock. **_Since when is our relationship so strained that I could think that of Dean? No, Dean wouldn't hurt me, he loves me,_** she tried to convince herself, no longer sure.

"Honey?" Lorelai asked. "What on earth are you wearing?"

Rory looked down. "Oh, I got soaked in the rain," she explained. "Luke told me to take a shower and change out of my wet clothes, and all he had for me to wear were some of Jess' clothes."

"Well, why don't you go change, and we'll figure out what to do about the Dean situation," Lorelai suggested.

"Oh, right, Dean!" Rory remembered. "I need to call him back." She reached for the receiver.

"Rory, don't you think you should decide what you're going to say first?" her mom asked.

"No," Rory reasoned. "If he's known since Saturday morning that I lied to him, he's got to be pretty mad by now. I don't want to keep him waiting any longer than I have to."

She picked up the receiver and dialed Dean's number from memory, walking into her bedroom as the phone rang.

"Hello?" Dean's voice came over the phone.

"Dean, hi, it's me," she said softly, closing her door behind her. "I just got your message, what's up?"

**_Please don't be calling to yell at me more, _**she silently prayed as she spoke. **_Please be the Dean that trusts me and knows that I would never do anything to hurt you._**

"I wanted to talk to you," Dean answered.

X X X X X X X X X X X

Author's note: Jess will appear soon, this _is_ a Literati. The flashback was taken directly from 'There's the Rub.' Let me know what you think so far!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own anything associated with Gilmore Girls.

Rating: will become M

Summary: Literati, set during Season 2, right after 'There's the Rub.' Dean can see that Rory is pulling away from him, but he isn't willing to let her go so easily. Rating for language, violence, and adult situations.

Author's note: This story will be very anti-Dean, so if this bothers you, please stop reading before I offend you.

Thanks for the reviews everyone!

**Daily Review**, as my first reviewer, this chapter is dedicated to you.

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Lorelai sprawled on the sofa, flipping through a magazine and sipping a mug of coffee. She glanced at Rory's door and frowned, concerned. She'd been in there talking to Dean for nearly an hour now. **_Hopefully they're just in the middle of one of those 'you hang up first' 'no, you' discussions and not another fight, _**she thought to herself.

Just then, Rory's door opened and she came out, still on the phone. She was rubbing her forehead with her free hand and wincing.

"Yes, Dean. Okay. Tomorrow. Bye." Rory hung up the phone and sighed loudly.

"Everything okay, babe?" Lorelai asked, setting aside her magazine.

"No. Yeah. I don't know," Rory mumbled. "Do we have any Advil? My head is killing me."

"There should be a bottle upstairs," Lorelai answered, getting to her feet. "Let me run up and grab it, you sit down for awhile."

"Thanks, mom," Rory gratefully sank onto the sofa as Lorelai ran up the stairs.

**_Dean didn't act like he knew I'd lied on Friday,_** Rory thought to herself as she waited. **_He just said he'd had a bad day and wanted me to make him feel better. But I really didn't feel like talking to him…nothing I said cheered him up, it was like he was determined to be in a bad mood._**

Lorelai came back downstairs with the bottle of Advil held up in the air triumphantly.

"Found it!" She exclaimed as she headed into the kitchen and filled a glass with water for her daughter.

She came back into the living room and handed the glass to Rory. "Here you go, sweetie," she said as she opened the bottle and shook out two pills.

Rory took the medicine and sipped her water, grimacing as she swallowed the capsules. "Thanks."

Lorelai sat on the couch next to Rory and pulled her legs up beneath her, sitting Indian-style. "So, Dean…" she began, looking at her daughter.

Rory sighed again. "I don't know. He didn't mention Jess once, just said he'd had a bad day and wanted me to cheer him up. But I felt like he wasn't even listening to anything I said, so eventually we made plans to hang out tomorrow night."

"And you were so excited about the prospect that you gave yourself a splitting headache?" Lorelai asked, an eyebrow raised.

"It's just so hard to talk to him lately," Rory said. "I feel like I have to always be careful of what I say so I don't upset him. All we do anymore is fight."

"And this is all because you're friends with Jess now?"

Rory shook her head. "I don't think so. I mean, that upsets him, definitely, but it's like if I want to do _anything_ besides hang out with him, he gets so unhappy."

"Well, he loves you," Lorelai reasoned. "He's worried about Jess, so he wants to spend as much time with you as possible so you remember what a great guy he is."

Rory rolled her eyes. "I'd think he was a lot greater if he just gave me some space and stopped getting mad at me all the time."

She got up and headed for her room. "I'm going to go lie down for awhile."

Lorelai watched her go, concerned. "Feel better!" she called out as Rory's door closed.

X X X

Luke made the last tally mark on his inventory sheet and hung the clipboard up on a hook hanging from a shelf. Dusting his hands off on his jeans, he headed back out to the diner and studied the window. The rain was still pouring down. He looked around his deserted diner and sighed.

**_Might as well close up, nobody's going to come in while this is going on,_** he thought to himself as he walked over to the door and flipped the 'open' sign over. Just then Jess appeared at the other side of the glass.

"Augh!" Luke cried, startled by his nephew's sudden appearance. He stepped back and allowed the drenched teenager to enter the diner.

"Where the hell have you been?" Luke demanded.

Jess gave his patented scowl. "Out."

"You look like a drowned rat!"

Jess nodded. "Thanks, you don't look so bad yourself," he said sarcastically.

He headed for the stairs.

"And here I thought maybe you had enough sense to come in out of the rain!" Luke called after him.

Jess ignored him and walked up to the apartment, dripping all the way. He headed straight for the bathroom, pausing only to grab a dry pair of boxers from the dresser.

He froze as soon as he entered the small room. Hanging over the shower door was a light blue blouse, long navy stockings, and a plaid skirt. Rory's Chilton uniform.

**_What the hell?_** Jess wondered, and stuck his head out the door, scanning the apartment. **_Well, she's gone now._**

More than a little disappointed, he stripped off his wet clothes and stepped into the shower, closing his eyes and just letting the hot water beat down on his frozen body. After a few minutes, he picked up the bar of soap and began to wash himself.

He noticed a washcloth sitting on the ledge, mostly dried. **_Rory's,_** he realized. Jess picked it up and scrubbed his entire body with the small piece of cloth.

He turned the water off and stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel. **_Too bad we couldn't have been in there at the same time,_** he thought to himself as he dried his body and pulled on the clean boxers.

Walking back into the apartment, Jess pulled open a dresser drawer and looked for his grey sweats. The clothes were in a slightly different arrangement than he'd left them. The sweats were missing. Jess frowned, then smiled slowly, realizing whose slender body they must be currently gracing.

He pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and picked up the phone.

X X X X

Lorelai knocked lightly on Rory's door, then opened it a crack and peeked inside. Rory was lying on her bed, reading a novel.

"Phone, honey."

Rory looked up and frowned. "Not Dean again…"

Lorelai shook her head. "It's Jess."

Instantly Rory smiled and held out her hand for the receiver.

Lorelai handed it to her and headed back out to the living room, a little concerned about how happy the prospect of talking to Jess made Rory, especially compared to her reaction when she thought it was Dean.

X X X

"So, someone seems to have stolen my grey sweatpants," Jess told Rory, settling back onto his bed with the phone.

"What a terrible thing to do," Rory teased. "Who do you think could've done such a thing?"

"Well, the culprit seems to have left behind some clues," Jess commented. "A couple articles of clothing, actually."

"Hmm…" Rory said. "Maybe you can get some DNA evidence off of them?"

"That sounds feasible…but I wonder if it's necessary?" Jess asked. "See, they look _awfully_ familiar to me."

Rory gasped in mock surprise. "Are you saying that you have a possible suspect in mind?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Jess told her, smirking. "And actually Rory, I hate to tell you this, but the suspect is you."

"I'm outraged," Rory cried. "How dare you accuse me of such a heinous act?"

Jess glanced towards the bathroom. "Because your Chilton uniform is hanging over the door of my shower, and unless you ran out of here in just your underwear, you must have taken something else to wear."

Rory laughed out loud at that idea. Jess grinned at the sound and made himself more comfortable, settling in for a long conversation.

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Author's Note: I'm not happy with how I ended this, but I just got stuck and didn't have the energy to work on it anymore. If it really seems incomplete and an odd ending, let me know and I may update it later, but otherwise I'm just going to move on to the next scene.


End file.
